Overclocking the K7S5A

[wxjunkie]

I'm not going to be making any major upgrades to my computer for at least 6 months, rite now I've got a KT7-Raid and a Tbird 1ghz, I ordered the K7S5A for pretty cheap off of NewEgg, since I can still use my SDRAM sticks, I figure I can try to overclock the Tbird, and hopefully get better results than I did with the Abit board.

Can anyone who's overclocked this board give me some feedback? Any stable overclocking would suit me...the KT7-Raid, while being a pretty solid board for me for the past two years, would give me headaches just running at 1000@1050. Both of my RAM sticks are Crucial CL2 256's so I doubt it was ever the fault of the RAM... and I've had a TT Volcano 7 on for a few months now.

 

[tohlya]

Try browsing this link:

http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=37

 

[Buz2b]

The K7S5A is not an overclocking board; if you thought otherwise, you were mistaken. Now for some good news; there are (on that site that tohlya was kind enough to link for you) some "Overclocking BIOS" that you can install that will allow you to do some minor, limited overclocking with the FSB only. These are not "official" ECS BIOS files but ones that have had the "hidden" options of various ECS BIOS files for this board enabled. There are no 1 MHz incremental increases available but some preset ones are there. That is the best you can do without some major modification of the board itself which in that case it would be better just to buy a different board.
Give that site a look-see for some pretty informative stuff.

 

[VTrider]

One of my systems is a K7S5A and I use a little proggie called 'SOFTFSB' to overclock the system once inside the OS. I'm currently running my XP 1600 (1.4ghz) @ XP 1800+ speeds (1.540ghz, 10.5x146.6) on some el cheapo Kingston vauleram DDR2100. I can run this XP 1600 on a 166FSB for a short time (XP 2100+ speeds?), but then it's freezes the system - I believe it's the memory that's holding me back. It could also be the vcore voltage which unfortunately, you cannot change within this program.

Overclocking BIOSs can be a little scary, I mean who makes them? :Q, heh, i'll probably load one of these BIOSs soon though just to check it out if I can't overclock any more w/software.

-VTrider

 

[masterc]

I'm looking to upgrade an old pentium 200 machine.
I found a good price on "Bare Box"... K7S5a, 1700 XP Cpu, 128mb sdram and mid 300watt ATX case for $279 Can ( ~$185 US). Do you guys think this is worth it???

Also, can you disable the on-board sound and network card on the K7S5A board??

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: masterc
I'm looking to upgrade an old pentium 200 machine.
I found a good price on "Bare Box"... K7S5a, 1700 XP Cpu, 128mb sdram and mid 300watt ATX case for $279 Can ( ~$185 US). Do you guys think this is worth it???

Also, can you disable the on-board sound and network card on the K7S5A board??

To answer the first questions last; yes, you can disable BOTH the onboard sound and LAN. My question would by "Why" disable the onboard NIC?? It's fast, it's built in and it doesn't take anything near a significant amount of resources to make any difference.

As to your question about the pricing on that "Bare Box" system, if you have a Fry's anywhere near you they have (at least in some areas) a special on an IWill MB (KT333) with an XP1800+ CPU for ~$139. Is a case and a floppy drive (maybe) worth $140.00?? Only you can decide that. I understand that there may be more to meet the eye here but I haven't seen it yet.

EDIT for my bad eyes!You said $279 CAN, not US dollars. Sorry. Well then it becomes getting a case and floppy for just under $50. Not too bad really but the IWILL MB with it's KT333 chipset would outperform the ECS pretty well. However, you have to keep in mind your area and what constitutes a "good" price. Maybe that would be an excellent price in some areas.

 

[MatthewF01]

ive had the K7S5A for about a year now, and ive taken it through a lot. I am about to replace it with that new Chaintech 7VJL.

You have to flash the BIOS to the modified overclock version. Then you can access FSB settings of 100/133/138/147/150/166 or something like that. I had a tbird 1.2 that i was running at 150 as a 1.4 ghz. That was using the Samsung PC2100 I have now. After upgrading to XP 1800+, Windows doesnt load past 138. Crummy.


If youre lookin to overclock, dont get this board. But otherwise, I love it! In every pc I have built for people, I used this board. Its great, and a great value, plus ya gotta love the onboard lan!